The Power of CEO Relationships: Unlocking Special Features and Success

Name: The Power of CEO Relationships: Unlocking Special Features and Success
Uploaded: 2024-02-10T16:51:02+00:00
Duration: 47 s
Channel: Jason M. Lemkin
Description: In this monologue, Jason M. Lemkin explains why cultivating a direct relationship with a SaaS company’s CEO can be a game‑changer for enterprise leaders…

10 Feb 2024 · 1 min

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In this monologue, Jason M. Lemkin explains why cultivating a direct relationship with a SaaS company’s CEO can be a game‑changer for enterprise leaders. He argues that when a CIO or other CXO needs a very specific capability that legacy vendors cannot or will not deliver, a personal connection to the CEO can secure a bespoke feature or accelerated timeline that would otherwise be impossible. Lemkin contrasts the typical delivery windows of large vendors (weeks, months, or even a year) with the potential to get a critical, long‑awaited function much faster through the CEO’s influence. He emphasizes that delivering such a high‑impact capability can turn the CIO into a hero within their organization, making the relationship with the CEO a strategic asset rather than a mere networking nicety.

Chapters

there's some meta reasons you're doing that, right? To improve that functionality in your company. But there are specific needs you need, a specific feature, a specific set of functionality that probably does not exist with the legacy vendors, or you would just continue using them, right? And if you have the relationship with the CEO, you are gonna get a better outcome for the one or two things that really matter to you, to you in that job and organization. And that is special to be able to pick up the phone, and you may not get that feature, next week or next quarter, and CEOs screw this up on the other side, they're stressed that they can't release that critical feature next month, but it's okay. If you're a CIO or CXO, the fact that in a year, in 12 months, you're gonna get something you've been waiting 7 years for and will be a hero to your organization, that's the magic of the CEO relationship.